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Australian Video Game News and ReviewsThu, 08 Dec 2016 01:59:50 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1Pokémon Moon – Reviewhttp://progressbar.com.au/2016/12/pokemon-moon-review/
http://progressbar.com.au/2016/12/pokemon-moon-review/#respondThu, 08 Dec 2016 01:59:50 +0000http://progressbar.com.au/?p=13062Pokémon, while never really leaving the public consciousness, came back with a vengeance in 2016. Earlier in the year Pokémon GO took the world by storm, pervasive in a way[...]

]]>Pokémon, while never really leaving the public consciousness, came back with a vengeance in 2016. Earlier in the year Pokémon GO took the world by storm, pervasive in a way that global phenomena haven’t been for some time. Not only were GO-related memes all over the internet, the game was out in the street as well; you couldn’t get milk from the corner store without seeing at least one person trying to catch something more interesting than a Zubat. Several months have passed since then and while the initial craze has died down, Nintendo have our back with the release of Pokémon Sun & Moon for 3DS.

Right from the beginning the game feels like a different type of journey. Your young trainer is moving with their mother to the Alola region, a group of four islands that are essentially the Pokémon world’s take on Hawaii. You’re dropped in your new house and are quickly visited by Professor Kukui, his lab coat over a bare chest making a striking first impression. He takes you to pick from three starter Pokémon, but instead of sending you off to tackle your first gym, you’re tasked with completing the Island Challenge. The Island Challenge is taken up by young boys and girls around the age of 11. To complete it you have to beat the big Kahuna on each of the four islands, but you can only challenge a Kahuna when you’ve completed the trials of each island captain. That’s right: gyms are gone!

In Pokémon Moon you’re not out trying to stop a god or save the planet, you’re just a kid who’s moved to a new place, starting a new life and going on an adventure with friends. Sure there’s still some pretty wacky stuff that happens later on in the plot, but for the most part it’s content being a simple childhood adventure. With all the holiday-season games full of mechs, magical assassins and WWI, Pokémon Moon offers a welcome alternative. It’s cozy, relaxing and happy to just bask in good vibes.

The presentation is top notch and super jolly, everything from the UI to the music to the sound that plays when you press a button. There’s a lot of other welcome changes, despite them being commonplace in a lot of other games for some time now. For starters there’s actual cutscenes now, with the camera moving in close when indoors and not being afraid to get right down amongst the rocks and vegetation. Battles have never felt more engaging, with the backdrop actually matching up with where you are in the world. Moving around the world is far more intuitive than previous entries (the grid-based movement of the late nineties is finally gone!), managing your inventory and Pokémon no longer feels like wading through mud, loading times are improved and for a 3DS title, the game is gorgeous.

There are still plenty of frustrations: the opening of the game has a LOT of handholding. Of course there’s nothing inherently wrong with tutorials, but in a near 20-year-old franchise that hasn’t changed all that much gameplay-wise there should at least be an option to tone down the amount of explanation. It’s quite some time, probably 2-3 hours, before you’re truly given free rein on where to go and what to do. And even then the game makes sure you know exactly which way you should and shouldn’t go to proceed. If you’ve played even one other Pokémon game before tackling this, it’ll be a bit of a slog.

Pokémon Moon is not a challenging game; in fact, I’ve yet to lose a single battle. I haven’t gone out of my way to grind levels but I have sought out every trainer along each route. This lack of difficulty works well if you’re after a cruisy adventure, but aside from a few tricky encounters (one trainer threw out a Miltank that managed to wreak utter havoc upon my team before I finally took it down), it’s a game you can almost play on autopilot.

There are some other smaller gripes: the annoying and utterly unnecessary electronic thud that plays whenever you walk into a wall or object, Team Skull’s ‘street-talk’ shtick gets old pretty fast, and is borderline nonsensical at times, and the mysterious Lillie is little more than a damsel in distress.

These niggling issues aren’t enough to get in the way of everything that makes Pokémon so universally adored. Watching these weird, often cute, occasionally disturbing monsters fight and grow is just as rewarding and fun to me in 2016 as it was as a kid in 1998. Pokémon Moon may be simple, but it’s simplicity is a large part of its appeal. Any franchise that runs this long faces that very real danger of becoming stagnant, and while Pokémon Moon may not be a complete revelation, it’s undoubtedly a step in the right direction. There’s no gyms, no melodramatic stakes, it’s colourful, jolly and deep enough to keep you interested without getting bogged down in the mechanics. Whether this is your first Pokémon game since Red and Blue or if you’ve never stopped playing, it’s a great time to jump in with Sun and Moon.

]]>http://progressbar.com.au/2016/12/pokemon-moon-review/feed/0Watch Dogs 2 – Reviewhttp://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/watchdogs2-review/
http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/watchdogs2-review/#respondWed, 30 Nov 2016 11:47:10 +0000http://progressbar.com.au/?p=13035Is it possible to love a game, or even like it, if it feels like your preferred way of playing is completely in contrast to that of its creators? What[...]

Is it possible to love a game, or even like it, if it feels like your preferred way of playing is completely in contrast to that of its creators? What if you felt they did everything right, bar one or two design decisions you could overlook or play around: can you truly recommend someone else play it? I’ve been conflicted after finishing games plenty of times in the past, but I don’t know for my gaming career I’ve ever been as conflicted as I am since playing Watch Dogs 2.

On both a personal and critical level, the original Watch Dogs was disappointing. A grey city festooned by brooding, unlikeable heroes and convoluted, half-baked mechanics left a sour impression at the start of this console generation. Creating a successful sequel seemed to be a Sisyphean task for any developer. However, by wisely choosing to wholesale abandon almost aspects of the original in terms of tone, style and location, Watch Dogs 2 at least had a fighting chance.

When compared to Aiden Pearce of the first Watch Dogs, a bucket of wallpaper paste would be a more enjoyable lead character. Thankfully, Marcus Holloway and his DedSec hacker crew are bursting with personality and charisma, filling the desperately required void left from before. Following on from the events in Chicago in 2013, ctOS has been rolled out across San Francisco, integrating a single, city-wide operating system across anything with a wi-fi signal and a microchip: Traffic lights, gas lines, security cameras, the lot. When Marcus and his crew discover that ctOS 2.0 is being used for nefarious purposes and to arrest people for crimes they haven’t committed, they decide enough is enough and they’ll take down the system.

The Bay Area is lovingly recreated in Watch Dogs 2, and is a true joy to explore. The level of vibrancy and detail throughout the city is mind-boggling.

What makes this relatively rudimentary story work is the fun interconnectivity between the different characters that make up DedSec. Marcus, young, black and tech-savvy has a larrikin attitude and approach, making playing as him far more enjoyable than your average protagonist. One collectible in the game, a four-square style check-in app, requires Marcus to take a photo of various landmarks across the San Francisco area. Rather than just taking regular landscapes, however, the camera defaults to a selfie cam, with a dedicated button for pulling faces and poses. It’s such a small feature that fills in such rich detail on both the world and Marcus himself, making him feel far more charismatic and likeable, whilst simultaneously feeling modern and in-tune with popular culture. For a game about tech and hacking, Watch Dogs felt stodgy and uncool. Watch Dogs 2 feels in tune, and modern to today’s culture. That’s a tough ask for a video game.

Marcus’ crew helps set the tone for the game. Horatio, with the all-time great hacker name of “Ratio”, is consistently cracking jokes and lightening up the group. As the only other black member of the group, Ratio and Marcus’ shared race maintains a constant point of attention throughout the game. One scene at Watch Dogs’ Google Campus equivalent sees the two characters deriding the lack of diversity in Silicon Valley with equal parts charm and rancour. Another DedSec member, Josh, is a hacker with autism, however, his condition is never used as a storytelling point or pejorative – rather, it’s just a character feature that helps flesh out the universe. Wrench and Sitara, the two remaining crew members, feel a little more generic in their characterisations, but they still have their highs across the game.

The DedSec crew is what truly strings the game together. Even Wrench, with his dumb mask, has a brilliant arc.

As the crew’s hacking exploits grow in complexity and as the plot ratchets up in tension, the game does a surprisingly good job at creating a villain you want to see get his comeuppance. In some situations, the game errs a little too close to the bleeding edge of reality: one of the final sequences of missions sees DedSec trying to stop an outside party from directly influencing an American Election, for example. This isn’t necessarily bad design (who could have predicted how crazy this previous American election would become), however, it did remove me from the narrative more than a few times. If biting commentary on modern life is what you’re looking for, arguably no game does it better than Watch Dogs 2.

The plot is a little too long, with what feels like three or four complete mission chains too many. I took my time and engaged with almost all of the side content as I played, however, this may have been to my detriment. After around two hours of playtime, I had unlocked every power, weapon and gadget I would use until the end of the game. Just as with its predecessor, Watch Dogs 2 does a particularly poor job of pacing out the “curve” of the players power. Rather than a nice, steady rise over the length of the game, Watch Dogs 2 feels more like a steep line upwards, followed by a long, long plateau.

The personality, style and fashion throughout Watch Dogs 2 is a refreshing change to most modern games. Marcus is a true gem of a character.

This is compounded with arguably the greatest case of narrative dissonance I’ve ever experienced, and ultimately my biggest issue with Watch Dogs 2. The fun-loving and jovial DedSec crew routinely sneak into secure areas to hijack data and destroy sensitive equipment with a variety of distraction techniques, special drones and stun guns if necessary to take down a threat. Or, right from the get-go, you could 3D print an M16 and grenade launcher to boot, then go to town killing everyone in sight. It’s in complete, 180 degree opposition to the tone and characters the game puts into place, and completely ruins any sense of immersion or enjoyment I could derive from it. The idea of the fun-loving DedSec crew, who spend entire missions doing nothing but putting up graffiti suddenly deciding to execute dozens of security workers was complete insanity. I immediately abstained from using any form of guns, confining myself to intelligent stealth-work, hacking and a stun-gun if necessary.

The complete tonal dissonance between fun-loving Marcus geeking out over a stupid movie trailer to stone-cold murdering civilians with an assault rifle was completely out of line. It stinks of cowardice on the behalf of the developer, and a lack of trust in the audience that they could not create an open world game without ritualistic murder. Two of the final missions in the game took me dozens upon dozens of tries each to complete non-lethally, but I had a point to prove: Not every game has to let you shoot anything. For a title that fights so intelligently to appear modern and in touch, this was as far out of order as it could possibly get.

Tonal errors aren’t the only problem Watch Dogs 2 faces. The controls are far too complicated, reeking of the problems that the later Assassin’s Creed titles faced. There are simply too many things mapped to the controller at once, so the entire system becomes overburdened and unintuitive. I didn’t realize until I was well over 30hrs in that there was an entire system of emotes and dances I had been ignoring the entire time, mapped to a face button! Meanwhile, trying to run and climb ledges at the same time requires a feat of minor digit-based dextrous madness. The hacking abilities also feel antiquated and oddly unintuitive, with almost every object in the environment sharing the same four abilities. It’s too clunky to use effectively, and relatively lacklustre when used at all. For all the modernity and polish that is poured into the fantastic rendering of San Francisco and its core characters, a little more focus on these interactive moments would not have gone astray.

Watch Dogs 1’s inane multiplayer modes have also made the jump into the sequel, but are best avoided at all costs: No joy is to be found here.

Watch Dogs 2 is a fantastic open world, with a great set of characters, a pretty good story and mediocre controls. There are clear, knowing design decisions that have been made to evolve past the sins of its forefather that should be celebrated. However, the relative stagnation of gameplay and significant errors in the tone of its world leave me conflicted. Watch Dogs 2 has a whole lot of detailed, nuanced things to say about modern life and our tech-reliant world, but it’s ultimately too afraid to truly put the trust in its audience to listen without being able to kill men, women and children. Perhaps with a bit more polish and a bit more trust, Watch Dogs 3 will be the amazing game this deserved to be.

Rating: 6/10

Watch Dogs 2 was reviewed on Xbox One with a review copy, provided by the publisher.

]]>http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/watchdogs2-review/feed/0Progress Bar Podcast – Episode 33http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/progress-bar-podcast-episode-33/
http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/progress-bar-podcast-episode-33/#respondWed, 30 Nov 2016 08:57:22 +0000http://progressbar.com.au/?p=13050Welcome back to the Progress Bar podcast. On Episode 33 Brendan, Darcy and Kochie will be talking about the latest week in gaming, More VR details and their picks for The Games[...]

]]>http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/progress-bar-podcast-episode-33/feed/0HMAS Perth comes to World of Warshipshttp://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/hmas-perth-comes-to-world-of-warships/
http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/hmas-perth-comes-to-world-of-warships/#respondMon, 21 Nov 2016 23:36:15 +0000http://progressbar.com.au/?p=13013Earlier this month, we attended the 2016 Wargaming Gathering for Australia in Melbourne during the lead-up for PAX Australia. While we were there, Wargaming announced the addition of the HMAS[...]

Earlier this month, we attended the 2016 Wargaming Gathering for Australia in Melbourne during the lead-up for PAX Australia. While we were there, Wargaming announced the addition of the HMAS Perth to World of Warships, the first Australian naval vessel to be part of the game.

HMAS Perth was a modified Leander-class cruiser of the Royal Australian Navy, and was first commissioned on 15 June 1936 as part of the British Royal Navy before being transferred to the Royal Australian Navy Fleet in June 1939.

On-hand at the gathering was Sho Hatai, Product Specialist on World of Warships, who explained more about development behind the HMAS Perth. Sho mentioned to us that discussions and development of the HMAS Perth first commenced at the start of 2016, and how the team were initially planning to have the HMAS Sydney in the game.

We were going to have HMAS Sydney, but the thing was we didn’t have enough historical resources and based off the dev’s decision, it became the HMAS Perth. Usually to make one ship, it takes about six months. So from about the start of the year, gathering the resources and sending them off [to the devs] to make it for the November release.

It’s great to see Wargaming taking such an interest in historical Australian wartime vehicles and incorporating them into their games. The HMAS Perth was not the first, with the Australian Cruiser tank Mark 1 (AC1) Sentinel featuring in World of Tanks. This also coincided with Wargaming procuring a real AC1 Sentinel tank from the US, conducting the restoration work and donating it to the Australian Armor & Artillery Museum in Cairns. Publishing Producer on World of Tanks in Asia, David Macfarlane, was also at the gathering and explained to us further with the development process for adding new tanks into World of Tanks.

It doesn’t take huge amounts of time to develop the tank itself, but there is huge amounts of time testing it and also, once again on the other side [World of Warships], huge amounts of time trying to get the paperwork to base things [the tank] from. So, most of it is like the other side.

We’re looking forward to seeing what Wargaming has for us with Australian war vehicles in the future.

HMAS Perth is now playable in World of Warships. Let us know what you think of it!

]]>http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/hmas-perth-comes-to-world-of-warships/feed/0Titanfall 2 – Reviewhttp://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/titanfall-2-review/
http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/titanfall-2-review/#respondMon, 21 Nov 2016 05:26:30 +0000http://progressbar.com.au/?p=12995The original Titanfall had a lot to prove, being the first game from Respawn Entertainment, the fledgling studio founded by the remnants of Infinity Ward. While it was critically well-received,[...]

]]>The original Titanfall had a lot to prove, being the first game from Respawn Entertainment, the fledgling studio founded by the remnants of Infinity Ward. While it was critically well-received, the PC version suffered from a multitude of technical issues that weren’t ironed out for some time, and the post-launch support in general was severely lacking. This all led to a rapidly hemorrhaging player base and after a month or so Titanfall was essentially dead in the water. Fast-forward two years and we’ve got Titanfall 2, a sequel determined to do it right this time and build upon the solid foundations laid by its predecessor. It’s brought a campaign along this time, and performance seems pretty solid across the board, relatively speaking. But does Titanfall 2 barge its way into the smoky VIP room alongside Halo, Call of Duty and Battlefield? Or is it destined to go the way of Evolve and Battleborn?

In the campaign you play as rifleman Jack Cooper (voiced by Matthew Mercer), who due to unforeseen circumstances is forced to take up his mentor’s Titan, BT-7274 (voiced by Glenn Steinbaum). The story Titanfall 2 tells is a simple one, elevated by the relationship that develops between pilot and Titan, as well some truly original mechanics and level design. The campaign takes itself seriously enough to elicit real emotions when it needs to (seriously, I was not expecting Titanfall 2 to make me feel things), but never overwhelms with grim realism or exposition. Steinbaum’s performance as BT is particularly enjoyable, I was laughing out loud more than once at his deadpan delivery. The game looks crisp as hell, and while it may not pull off the same level of visual fidelity as Battlefield 1, it still manages to impress with a more stylised look. As already mentioned I had little to no performance issues and man does this game look phenomenal running at 60fps.

As a pilot you are able to double jump, wall-run and crouch-slide which all feels intuitive and satisfying. Having played very little of the first game, it wasn’t long before I was gliding and sliding around the early levels with ease. It helps that there’s a repeatable ‘gauntlet’ tutorial level, allowing you to hone your skills for as long as you want. The first few levels feel like they’re training you for multiplayer, but things soon get interesting. More than once I was pleasantly surprised at how clever and fresh it all felt. After a certain point, each level starts doing something completely different to the last. It never feels like too much too fast though, just when I was starting to think I’d had enough of a certain mechanic or locale, it moved me on to the next. Even standard FPS environments like caves, underground factories and ruined labs are made to feel unique. For example, one level takes place in factory that makes prefab houses. You have to jump from half-built house to half-built house as they move along the factory line, using the recently attached walls as cover. Another level is on a series of huge spacecraft flying within the atmosphere, with yet another allowing you to move between two different time periods at the press of a button. The campaign is short, taking me around five hours to complete, but it’ll leave you wanting more in the best possible way.

Of course it’s not perfect, there are some very intrusive objective markers that can’t be switched off, and Jack’s arsenal never feels all that special. The weapons are all ported over from multiplayer so they’re all slight variations of what you’d expect: pistols, rifles, SMGs, snipers, shotguns etc. The weapons art design is clunky and generic. If you asked me right now to tell you the name of a single weapon in Titanfall 2 I’d struggle. I think maybe one’s called a Volter? Anyway, this is offset by gradually unlocking new loadouts for BT. These actually feel like an event when you come across them, but again they’re ripped straight from the multiplayer. Speaking of which…

At first the multiplayer was a bit of a shock. I’d been playing a lot of Overwatch and Battlefield 1 and so the more tight-knit level design and incredibly frenetic movement of Titanfall 2 caught me off guard. By the time I had a few matches under my belt it began to fall into place and the fun started. I amazed myself at all the twitch action I was managing to pull off by combining double jumps, wall-running, sliding round corners, grappling up high and piggybacking onto enemy Titans. It’s fluid and fast-paced and yet you always feel in control. All the different loadouts, weapons and classes are quite overwhelming and while it doesn’t take much to start unlocking new stuff, I have to admit it doesn’t really excite me. If anything I feel fatigued by the sheer amount of stuff to rank up or unlock or purchase.

Two weeks out from launch and I’ve seen PC player counts ranging from 3-4k in the Australian region. This is likely to rise to 5-6k on weekends. Not huge numbers but enough to get a game after a short time queueing. I recommend joining a local network, which acts as a sort of clan, this makes organizing matches a little easier. The general UI of multiplayer is definitely ported straight over from console, the main menu is needlessly cramped and there’s no server browser, but it does the trick for the most part.

It’s hard to deny that 2016 has been a fantastic year for shooters. DOOM, Overwatch and Battlefield 1 are not only exceptional, they happily co-exist, with each title offering something completely unique. Titanfall 2 joins these heavy-hitters and manages to hold its own. This is no small feat, and Respawn should be commended for sticking to their guns and fixing everything that was lacking with the original Titanfall. The campaign is more than just a box being ticked by their marketing team, it’s full of heart and creativity. The multiplayer is similarly solid, ensuring there’s plenty for the players to do and that it feels good doing it. If fast-paced, acrobatic gun-play and feeling emotions for weaponised robots is your thing, you can’t go wrong with Titanfall 2.

]]>http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/progress-bar-podcast-episode-32/feed/0NES Classic Mini Pre-Orders Crash EB Games Sitehttp://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/nes-classic-mini-pre-orders-crash-eb-games-site/
http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/nes-classic-mini-pre-orders-crash-eb-games-site/#respondMon, 14 Nov 2016 02:00:11 +0000http://progressbar.com.au/?p=12973So if you tried to pre-order a NES Classic Mini today from the EB Games website, you probably were probably met with the screenshot below as the site toppled from excessive traffic. Man,[...]

So if you tried to pre-order a NES Classic Mini today from the EB Games website, you probably were probably met with the screenshot below as the site toppled from excessive traffic. Man, people really want their Mini NES!

EB have mentioned that they will give it another shot tomorrow with pre-orders opening at 12PM AEDT.

]]>http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/nes-classic-mini-pre-orders-crash-eb-games-site/feed/0Dark Souls 3: Ashes of Ariandel – Reviewhttp://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/dark-souls-3-ashes-of-ariandel-review/
http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/dark-souls-3-ashes-of-ariandel-review/#respondFri, 11 Nov 2016 05:24:12 +0000http://progressbar.com.au/?p=12881In many ways, the Dark Souls games are ideal for post-release DLC: there’s no need for a hastily churned out supplementary narrative, nor is there any expectation to introduce some[...]

In many ways, the Dark Souls games are ideal for post-release DLC: there’s no need for a hastily churned out supplementary narrative, nor is there any expectation to introduce some grand new gameplay mechanic. All Dark Souls DLC needs to do to is give us more of the same thrills and challenges delivered by every game in the series. Let us explore a new land and be torn to shreds by some fresh nightmarish beast, sure, but as long as there’s more of that rewarding and fascinating Souls magic, From Software can’t go wrong. At least, this is what I thought before I played Ashes of Ariandel.

Upon installing this DLC and visiting the Cleansing Chapel bonfire, you’ll soon arrive in the Painted World of Ariandel. Tis a cold and barren land, filled with ferocious wolves, hulking warriors and screeching crow-fetuses. Yep, sounds like Dark Souls alright. As to be expected, the reason for your being in this world is never made explicitly clear. There are a number of friendly (or, at least, they don’t attack you on sight) people to meet, all with a few lines of classic austere Souls dialogue. Some give solemn warnings:

“I trust you’ve learned your lesson…

Inside the cold painting, curiousity could be your cross…”

Others provide some vague guidance, before chuckling their way into silence:

“Make the tales true, and burn this world away.

My Lady must see flame, and you have only to show her.”

The Painted World is admittedly quite large, but due to it being compiled mostly of rock, snow and ice it’s also very drab and uniform. Compared to some of the haunting and beautiful locales of the base game, Ariandel is nothing to write home about. There are a handful of new enemies to face, some of which would fit right in with Bloodborne’s menagerie, others simply ‘frosty’ versions of similar enemies from Dark Souls 3. Perhaps I was a little rusty, but I felt several of the encounters were needlessly frustrating. Climbing a narrow tower staircase while trying to fend off enormous shielded enemies who will happily charge straight at you, while definitely difficult, was not at all rewarding.

All in all Dark Souls 3: Ashes of Ariandel feels a little meandering, both in level and encounter design. There are moments that recapture the highs we all know and love from the series, but they are limited in number. It’ll scratch that itch if you’re simply looking for more, but its overall quality isn’t quite worth the price of admission (currently sitting at $22.95 AUD on the PSN Store). Hopefully the next DLC, due out in early 2017, will be a little more enticing.

Rating: 6/10

Dark Souls 3: Ashes of Ariandel was reviewed with a PS4 code of the game, provided by the publisher.

]]>http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/dark-souls-3-ashes-of-ariandel-review/feed/0Dishonored 2 – Early Impressionshttp://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/dishonored-2-early-impressions/
http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/dishonored-2-early-impressions/#commentsWed, 09 Nov 2016 13:01:04 +0000http://progressbar.com.au/?p=12929Following Bethesda’s announcement towards the end of October, they’re no longer sending out review copies of their games in advance of release. Instead, they’re now sending them to reviewers and media just 24[...]

Following Bethesda’s announcement towards the end of October, they’re no longer sending out review copies of their games in advance of release. Instead, they’re now sending them to reviewers and media just 24 hours in advance. This strategy worked out in their favour earlier this year, with DOOM getting near universal praise, but will it be the same for Dishonored 2? I’ve played the first two hours of the PC version of the game, and below are some of my early thoughts. Expect a review on the way in the coming days.

Graphics, Presentation & Performance

The graphic options are reasonably extensive, with a lot of the settings having everything from Very Low to Ultra. Following on from the previous game, you can even disable/enable rat and bloodfly shadows. There is a rather claustrophobic vignette that appears only when Emily or Corvo are crouching, which unfortunately cannot be disabled. Despite the accommodating spectrum of these options, I was unable to maintain 60 fps at 1440p with my current PC setup(Specs: r9 290, i5 4690k, 16gb ram). What I settled on was 1080p with mostly High settings and some of the more demanding on/off settings switched to Off (volumetric lighting, depth of field). This allowed me to maintain 60fps with dips down into the high 40s. I have to admit this is pretty disappointing, while the art style is just as gorgeous as its predecessor, the visuals don’t seem like they should be all that demanding.

After that is where things started going really pear-shaped. I was playing with my compromised settings, putting up with the occasional frame rate dip, when I leaned around a corner and saw the FPS counter drop to 18. I turned down all the settings to Very Low and all the on/off settings to off and the frame rate didn’t change. To be fair this particular room, the throne room right at the start of the game, is quite detailed with lots of flowers adorning the columns and there’s several dead bodies littering the floor. But I’m afraid something weird is happening here, check out the following shots, taking note of the FPS counter in the top left.

Facing towards the back of the throne room I get a solid 60fps, but after turning 180 degrees it drops to 32. Going back to the door through which I first entered the room it drops even further to 18 fps. Keep in mind this is all on the lowest possible settings at 1080p. I figured it was perhaps a driver issue. So I did a clean uninstall and then installed the drivers Bethesda specifically recommend for AMD cards. Frame rates were exactly the same in those particular areas of the throne room. I then considered that perhaps this was an isolated incident, it was early on in the game after all, perhaps it’ll even out from here on. Unfortunately this is not the case. Any time I faced a particular open area, as you can see from the following screens, the frame rate tanked. Now bear in mind not all of the below shots are on the lowest of low settings (I turned some of them back up after testing the throne room) but to be honest with such weirdly specific and enormous dips, I don’t think it’s got much to do with settings.

Narrative & Characters

The craziness starts just as quickly as the first game, in Dishonored 2 you’re mourning your mother, the next you’re being arrested as a traitor. The narrative, the world, the lore, all of it is as intriguing and engaging as the first game. It actually feels great to be in this world again. There’s no disconnect between the two games either, Dunwall feels like Dunwall and Karnaca (which I’ve only just arrived at) fits perfectly with the universe set up in the original Dishonored. The new/returning characters all have me intrigued, and wanting to learn more about them.

One rather significant change is that your character now speaks, whether you play as Emily or Corvo they’ll now comment on things you see and do in the world. So far this has been enjoyable rather than irritating. Emily will for example reminisce about simpler times of smoking her hookah with friends, or lessons with her mother. At one point, after killing a traitorous City Watchman, she commented that he wasn’t fit for the uniform, her voice full of spite. It definitely heightens the emotional connection with Emily and her plight.

Gameplay

Enemies are a lot tougher now, especially at the beginning when Emily has no powers. Unlike the original game, they no longer have to have their whole bodies turned toward you to spot you. If you raise their awareness meter even a little, they’ll continue on their patrol but their head will be turned towards where they spotted you, making it quite difficult to get away unseen. Guards will notice if doors have been opened (even if they weren’t in earshot when you opened it) and when approaching them from behind, if you’re in their peripheral vision, they will spot you very quickly. It’s quite brutal.

I actually recommend playing without objective markers and just allow yourself to explore the levels organically. It’s a lot more rewarding to stumble across tucked away audiographs or hidden treasure. I noticed there were places I couldn’t get to as Emily in the first area (as she didn’t have blink yet) that I assume you CAN get to with Corvo. This could make multiple playthroughs interesting and adds a factor of replay-ability. It may also be worth mentioning that you can choose to reject the outsider’s help, forgoing supernatural powers for the entire game. I may only have seen the first handful of areas (as well as the Clockwork Mansion at the EB Games Expo), but I’m comfortable in saying that the level design is just as good if not better than original game. The scale of everything seems grander in general, you can climb higher, streets are wider, that sort of thing. It feels great.

Emily will fill out her journal as she progresses through the story, adding extra depth to her character, as well as keeping all the different political machinations fresh in your mind. It’s a nice touch that you have to actually interact with her journal to unlock these updates. Another welcome little addition is that maps you find out in the world will be saved in your journal, for future reference.

So there’s my thoughts on the first hour or two of Dishonored 2. While there’s a lot to love here and I’m keen to keep playing, it’s a real disappointment that such a beautiful and fun game is being held back by some quite significant technical issues. Time will tell if it’s a simple fix that’ll get patched in the coming days, or if this is just how the game will perform and that’s that. Unfortunately we’ve no way of knowing ahead of time, the game will be out by the time this article goes up so any message of ‘buyer beware’ is essentially useless. Getting reviews out a week or two before a game releases is important for this very reason. If developers don’t suffer any financial repercussions for selling a buggy game with poor performance, we’ll keep getting more games like Assassin’s Creed: Unity or Arkham Knight on PC.

]]>http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/dishonored-2-early-impressions/feed/1Battlefield 1 – Reviewhttp://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/battlefield-1-review/
http://progressbar.com.au/2016/11/battlefield-1-review/#respondWed, 09 Nov 2016 10:10:07 +0000http://progressbar.com.au/?p=12893When it was revealed that Battlefield 1 would be set during the First World War, I found it hard not to be excited. A franchise known for its buggy launches,[...]

When it was revealed that Battlefield 1 would be set during the First World War, I found it hard not to be excited. A franchise known for its buggy launches, mediocre campaigns and… ‘levolution’, was now trying something completely out of left field, not just for the series but for the entire industry. Very few games are set during WWI, and the ones that are have nowhere near the budget of a triple A series like Battlefield. This fresh direction immediately felt like the right move, especially when considering the plethora of shooters set during the present day or ‘the not too distant future’. Now that the game’s finally out, I can safely say that this was the right move for DICE to make. Battlefield 1 isn’t just a return to form, but a huge leap forward in every sense.

It almost goes without saying that the game looks and sounds incredible. DICE have always excelled in this regard and Battlefield 1 is no exception. The barbed wire and mud of no-man’s land, the rocky outcrops of the Sinai Desert or the thickly wooded Argonne Forest, all of these environments look gorgeous and astoundingly realistic. On top of this is the fantastic soundscape and how the terrain dynamically reacts to the destructive force of battle. It’s one thing for an environment to look pretty, but it adds a whole other layer when you know that almost every single thing in front of you can be utterly levelled by the time the round ends. This destructibility has been a mainstay of the series for some time now, but it really gets to flex its muscles with the First World War. Buildings will collapse around (or on top of) you, huge craters will appear in dirt or sand, wood splinters and stone crumbles all just as you’d expect. Sometimes you’ll duck for cover as a tank rolls past or a bomber flies overhead, only to look up moments later and be met with a completely different landscape.

Then there’s the sound design. My GOD the sound design. I’ve gushed about DICE’s unmatched prowess in this area before; Battlefront and indeed previous entries in the Battlefield series have never disappointed when it comes to aurally overwhelming the player, but I have to say they’ve outdone themselves yet again. The pitter-patter of dirt as a mortar narrowly misses you, the concussive thud of artillery raining down all around, bullets and bombs whining as they fly past, and some of the most disturbingly realistic screams I’ve ever heard in a game. Never has a videogame more accurately captured the relentless bedlam and sensory overload of war.

Battlefield may not be known for its single player, and these days developers are damned if they do, damned if they don’t with single player campaigns. They either spend the extra money to churn out some boring, monotonous drivel with a famous face or two, or they ship the game multiplayer-only and people complain that it’s not worth the asking price. In this case the relatively untrodden ground of WWI allows DICE to tell a series of brief, but engaging tales. Don’t get too excited, Battlefield 1’s campaign may not be as forgettable as the last couple, but at the end of the day it’s still just good, not great.

The campaign consists of a collection of ‘war stories’, each of which are about a completely different person, fighting in a different theatre of the war. The time you spend with these characters is short, but it’s enough to get a general sense of who they are why they’re fighting, with some being more likeable than others. There are attempts to reach the emotional heights of a well-crafted war film, but it never quite gets there. Unfortunately, given the ludicrously over the top action the characters are put through (one level sees you wearing a suit of metal armour and storming a fort with a machine gun), the attempts at emotional nuance come across as shallow and overly sentimental. I still enjoyed the time I spent with it, and as an added incentive there’s a number of collectibles and challenges for each level which, when completed, unlock weapon and vehicle skins useable in multiplayer. This may sound meaningless, but they’re actually pretty damn cool.

This series of course has its roots in multiplayer, and multiplayer has always been its strength. Battlefield 1 is no different. There’s the tried and true game modes, such as Rush and Conquest, but the new mode Operations is where I’ve been spending most of my time. One Operation will take longer than the other modes, but it’s by far the best way to get truly immersed. Simply put, Operations are a careful mix of Attack/Defend, Conquest and Rush. The defending team must protect one sector at a time, if the attackers capture all points in a sector, the defenders are forced to retreat and defend the next sector. It utilises the same maps, but they’re organised in different ways, allowing you to fight in areas previously out-of-bounds. It makes maps you’ve played over and over again in other modes feel brand new again, but also focusses the action in a completely unique way. For example, in the Conquest version of the St Quentin’s Scar map, there’s a system of trenches that run along the edge of the level, in the Operations version however, these trenches are situated right in the middle, and so become the centerpiece of the match. Concentrating 64 players into specific areas allows for some chaotic gunplay, and gives the truest impression available of how the actual war would’ve played out.

The flow of battle in this game feels so fluid and natural, DICE seem to have got it down to an art form. In previous games in the series you’d occasionally have these ‘Battlefield Moments’ where the stars align and some epic combat happens or perhaps you have a great run with a shotgun or in a tank. These moments were a blast when they happened, but you were just as likely to spend your time getting sniped as soon as you spawn, or having to run for ages just to see another player. During my time playing Battlefield 1 these moments are happening every minute of every single match. The maps are designed in such a way that enables frenetic, strategic and balanced combat to unfold. This careful design also means there’s very few instances of frustrating bottlenecks where everyone is just spamming grenades. The maps aren’t flawless, in fact some are in dire need of tweaking, but the improvement in level design over Battlefield 3 and 4 cannot be overstated.

There’s a simplicity to the weapons and gadgets that made me feel such relief. There’s semi-automatic rifles, old-timey SMGs, shotguns and sniper rifles. Everything is easy to identify visually and you know exactly what a weapon is going to feel like before you shoot it. As franchises like Call of Duty and Battlefield have moved from WWII to the modern day and beyond, the weapons feel far less grounded. Each gun is more convoluted and soulless than the last, and there’s only so much enjoyment one can get from adding an ACOG sight or an under-barrel grenade launcher. Battlefield 1 takes it back to basics. There’s still plenty of customisation and unlocks, but it all feels auxiliary. It’s there if it interests you, but it’s not at all necessary to have a good time.

Despite the incomprehensible horror of the actual event, DICE have managed to take one of the lowest points of our history and turn it into an incredibly immersive and visually unrivalled multiplayer shooter. Not content to just slap a WWI skin on Battlefield 4 and call it a day, DICE have improved upon their formula in almost every way. The game looks unbelievable and sounds even better, the campaign is actually worth playing, the new Operations mode is an instant classic and the level and environment design is sublime. Battlefield 1 is about as complete a package as you can get and I can’t stop playing it.

Rating: 9/10

Battlefield 1 was reviewed on PC, using a review code provided by the publisher.